Violet’s original plan had been to throw a fit like a child and avoid meeting Adelaide altogether. But she had no trouble smoothing over the memory of her anxious morning into a scene of herself beside herself with joy at Adelaide’s visit.
“Tell me about Viscount Lavota. Friends brag about their lovers to each other, don’t they?”
“Lady Violet.”
“Where did you meet? Was it love at first sight? You got engaged despite the difference in standing, so it must have been a fateful love, of course?”
“Lady,”
“Viscount Lavota is very handsome. His eyes are gentle and warm-looking too. It may be rude to say this, but he reminds me of the big dog I raised when I was little.”
“La,”
“Speaking of dogs, is Adel a dog person or a cat person? I love cats too, but dogs are just so adorable I can’t help myself. When Ceci got old and died, I cried for three days and nights and couldn’t even eat.”
“La,”
“So anyway, Adel, Viscount Lavota. Where did you say you met?”
Adelaide, having reached her limit, flipped the table. The dark tea spread across the white tablecloth and splattered in every direction.
Violet let out a shriek, and at the same moment Adelaide pulled her close and bent over her. As a result, Adelaide became the casualty of the table she had overturned herself.
“Adel!”
“Violet. Lionel is not my betrothed, and I took him in because I fainted trying to throw him out. I can’t stand dogs or cats. If I were to keep a pet, I’d want a reptile. When I was little, I thought lizards were baby dragons and kept one. The Duke left the cage door open and it got out somewhere. I did not cry for three days and nights, and I ate every meal just fine.”
Adelaide stood up after confirming that Violet was unharmed. Adelaide looked like a drowned rat.
“Adel, Adel, where are you going?”
“Home. I can’t stay here any longer.”
“If you go home soaking wet and catch a cold……. Adel, at least change your clothes before you leave. I’ll lend you something of mine.”
“Lionel! Amy!”
At Adelaide’s shout, Lionel and Amy appeared from somewhere.
Lionel took off his jacket and quickly draped it over Adelaide’s shoulders. Amy ran out of the garden to call for the carriage.
“Adel!”
“Goodbye, Lady Violet. Let’s never see each other again.”
Violet pressed her palm to her pounding heart.
“She threw herself to protect me, and she called me Violet, even if only for a moment…….”
Violet believed the table had been knocked over by the wind. Who would overturn a table with their own hands and then throw themselves forward to protect someone else?
For the first time since her failed first love, Violet’s heart beat with something lively.
The person who gained the most from Adelaide and Violet’s meeting was Count Armetia.
He had been on the verge of losing his place as a father, charged with the offense of saving his daughter from throwing her life away for an absurd love.
Adelaide saved Count Armetia, who had been walking a razor’s edge.
After leaving the convent, Violet shared dinner with Count Armetia for the first time.
At the sight of Violet chattering away just as she had before she ever met that postman who had been sent off with two pouches of gold, Count Armetia forgot his dignity and felt his eyes grow wet.
So it was only natural that Count Armetia began defending Adelaide wherever he went.
Adelaide’s reputation, which had once been so bad that rumors spread claiming the real Berthier lady had been replaced with an impostor, was quietly trending upward without her knowledge.
Two days after resolving never to see Violet again, Adelaide received a letter announcing that Violet would be paying a formal visit. By the fourth day, invitations from people who wished to spend time with Adelaide arrived one after another.
“What is all this?”
“Invitations, my lady. It seems Lady Violet has been speaking well of you here and there. This one is for a flower-viewing outing, and this one is for a boat excursion on the lake. Oh, and this one says they would be honored if you would grace their birthday banquet with your presence.”
Violet alone was enough to give Adelaide a migraine.
According to Amy’s information, Violet was supposed to be quiet and unassuming, but the real Violet talked endlessly and stubbornly refused to give up her rather peculiar desire to bathe with Adelaide.
“You really must go to Lady Vivian’s birthday banquet. Lady Vivian knows everyone, and she invites all sorts of important people to her birthday banquets.”
Adelaide let Amy’s excited chatter go in one ear and out the other. The idea that she ought to celebrate a stranger’s birthday held not the slightest appeal for her.
“The boat excursion too. The weather has been so pleasant lately that the boat practically glides along without even rowing. You’ve never been on a boat before, my lady, so I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.”
Adelaide had no fondness for boats. After being thrown out of the house and suffering through every hardship imaginable, she had even tried her hand at fishing. She had no desire to look at a boat ever again.
“Amy, you’re making my head pound this early in the morning. Does holding your tongue for even a moment give you a sore tongue?”
“This early? Oh my, the Duke said he’s going to the imperial palace late today and asked to have breakfast together!”
Amy hurried to bring washing water.
Adelaide wanted to say she would rather go hungry than eat with Duke Berthier, but she settled for being glad that Amy’s chatter had stopped.
She could already picture what would happen if she said she would eat in her room. Amy would well up with fake tears and say, “Viscount Lavota is having breakfast with the Duke, so how can you not go, my lady?”
She washed her face quickly and changed out of her nightgown into her indoor clothes. It was the front-button dress Adelaide had requested.
Amy’s fingers twitched as she watched Adelaide change by herself without needing a hand.
“My lady. Do you really have to wear that?”
“Am I not allowed to dress however I please in my own home?”
“That’s not what I meant……. It’s a rare chance to have breakfast with the Duke, and I thought it would be nicer to appear looking your best…….”
“So you’re saying I don’t look my best?”
“No! You’re beautiful, my lady! The greatest beauty in the empire!”
Adelaide was a beauty with, to borrow Lionel’s description, hair the color of a ripe strawberry. She had the delicate features of Duchess Berthier and the slightly upturned eyes she had inherited from Duke Berthier.
Through her own efforts over the years, Adelaide’s expression had grown fiercer by the day. When she kept her mouth shut, a cold wind blew, and when she opened it, a gale followed.
Adelaide finished getting ready and headed to the dining room. Lionel, who had been sitting through Duke Berthier’s impassioned speech that began with “Back in my day,” brightened and rose to his feet.
“My lady!”
“Don’t smile.”
“I can’t help smiling whenever I see you, my lady.”
“Are you saying I’m some kind of clown?”
“Where would you find a clown as beautiful as you, my lady?”
“Duke, just listen to him. Viscount Lavota, nothing. He should be a poet who does nothing but make jokes.”
Duke Berthier said nothing and quietly shot Lionel a sidelong look. Lionel’s standing in Duke Berthier’s mind had dropped considerably.
From the son of a benefactor and a future son-in-law to a thief who might steal away his precious daughter at any moment.
“Lionel, it’s poor form to cut into a conversation without warning like that.”
“I apologize, Duke. I hadn’t realized you were in the middle of a conversation.”
Lionel drooped his shoulders and relayed to Adelaide every word Duke Berthier had said.
“I was listening to Duke Berthier’s stories from his younger days, my lady. He said that back when he was young, everyone who went hunting caught bears with their bare hands, and on the battlefield he could knock a mounted rider off his horse.”
Adelaide made a face of undisguised exasperation.
“No, I was simply trying to offer advice that would serve them well.”
“Lionel doesn’t look short on flesh and blood to me, Duke.”
“I meant you as well, not just Lionel. I helped you become friends with the Armetia lady, and you could at least have come to thank me, even as a formality. Back in my day, whenever an elder helped you with something, you always made a point of going to pay your respects.”
“The one who gave me flesh and blood was my mother. You were at the imperial palace on the day I was born because you had work to do. So I’ll thank my mother separately.”
“Of course Elena gave you your body, but!”
“You admit it yourself, then? Good, let’s eat now. If we wait any longer, we’ll all be filling our stomachs with cold food.”
Duke Berthier was hungry for conversation. But Lionel, who would take anything Adelaide said as gospel, was busy diligently putting food in his mouth.
“Adelaide.”
“Farmers in the field,”
“Is there some rule that only farmers in the field talk during meals? If I want to speak, I’ll speak whenever I please.”
He succeeded in cutting off Adelaide with a firm tone, but the atmosphere had gone stiff. Duke Berthier drummed his fingers on the table and searched for something to talk about.
“It seems His Highness the Crown Prince intends to invite you to the imperial palace soon.”
“I thought he was just saying it to be polite. How unexpected.”
“Just saying it to be polite! His Highness the Crown Prince keeps an impossibly busy schedule. The fact that he remembered his promise to you is something to be grateful for.”
Duke Berthier was privately uneasy about Cyril’s invitation himself. If he could help it, he wanted Adelaide to have no connection to the imperial palace until she inherited the duchy. Duke Berthier was a subject of the Emperor, but the Berthier lady was nothing in her own right.
“If he’s that busy, tell him to get back to work. Lady Violet alone is more than enough to fill my schedule.”
Adelaide replied curtly. Duke Berthier was quick to seize on the fresh topic.
“The Armetia lady is coming to visit, I hear?”
“Yes.”
“So the two of you are proper friends now?”
“No.”
“She’s not a friend, and yet you’ve allowed her to come visit?”
“Yes.”
Duke Berthier cooled his burning curiosity with a glass of cold water. Lionel, who was secretly biting his lower lip to hold back a smile behind Adelaide’s back, was insufferable.
“Well, Adelaide, the road to friendship isn’t easy, but if you always lead with sincerity and express what’s in your heart,”
“Duke. Eat your breakfast.”
